Spinach Adai (Rice & Lentil Crepe)

Spinach is a beautiful thing. 

And I'm not even talking about all the wonderful health benefits of this supreme super food. You all should know it by now. If not, Google it today and educate yourself. 

I'm talking about how often the beauty and versatility of Spinach is undervalued. One of the great things about Spinach is that it does not have a very distinct flavor or taste. Which means, it can be easily blended with other foods. And this could be anything from smoothies to soups to lasagnas or to baby food. 

Forget food, there is even a recipe for a glowing and anti aging face mask made with spinach puree. Nature has all the answers - we just need to match those up with our questions. 

I've kind of started making a lot of spinach blended food at home. That recently included parathas, rice, sauces for pasta, and now of course this beautiful and nutritious adai. 

This adai uses rice and two types of daals - channa and toor daal. 

Here are the ingredients -
Rice - 1 cup
Toor Daal (Split Pigeon Pea)- 1/3 cup
Channa Daal (Yellow Split Pea)- 1/3 cup
Fresh Spinach - 1 bunch cleaned thoroughly
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chillies - 3-4
Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp
Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Fresh Coconut - chopped or grated 1/4 cup

For tadka:
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Channa Daal - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - a few

Wash and soak the rice and daal together for about 2-3 hours.

Pick the spinach leaves off the stems and wash the leaves thoroughly.

In a pan, heat up about 1/2 tsp of oil. When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies and black pepper. Fry for a few seconds and add the fresh spinach in there. Cook for just a min or two until the spinach kind of wilts and shrinks. Don't overcook the spinach - let's try and keep some vitamins in here.

Here's the soaked rice and daal. The daal will be soft to touch now.

Move the cooked spinach and soaked rice/daal to a blender. Add the 1/4 cup of coconut. You can use grated frozen coconut or can use the fresh one as well. For a change, I had fresh coconut chopped up at home. So,in here they go. If you don't mind spicy food and got no kids complaining about it - go ahead and throw in a couple of green chillies in here. Add salt to taste.

Grind together to a beautiful green batter.

Do a tadka of mustard seeds, curry leaves and 1 tsp channa daal and add to the batter. Mix well.

Use a ladle full of batter and make a thin dosa like crepe. Usually adais are done really thick and they become very heavy to eat. Somehow I like to make them thin - just make sure your batter is smooth enough so you can draw it out thin.

Serve 'em hot.
Coconut Chutney makes a good side accompaniment for this adai. You could also make sambar if you'd like or avial which goes really well with all types of adais.

How can your kids say no to spinach this way? Make use of it! You can also add some grated carrots or finely chopped onions to the batter for a more wholesome adai. Be creative - make it all uniquely yours.

Can we have dinner now? My crispy adais are waiting..

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Rava Idli and Pudina Chutney

Some days when I get home from work, I wish a hot dinner was magically ready on my table and all I have to do is sit down, relax and enjoy it. Well, there's no harm in wishing. 

On some days though, I do have the energy and the inclination to cook and photograph and later blog about it. I want to say that this is often but you and I know the truth there and I won't go any further on that. 

On this day however, I reached home from work very hungry. And was playing various ways to cook up the ingredients at home to make a quick meal. And then it happened. I checked my google reader for a quick min and found this. Nags's Rava Idli post. The minute I saw that picture of her three idlis on the banana leaf plate, I wanted to eat it. So much, that I got up from my computer almost immediately (that never happens btw) and started checking for ingredients and getting my things ready to prepare this. And I thought I did not have Eno and decided to use some baking soda instead - yea..nothing could stop me. But then miraculously, I opened one of my cabinets and this brand new bottle of Eno was sitting right there still wrapped in package unopened! That's it - me and my Rava idli night were just meant to be. Thank You Nags for making me move my lazy butt and cook this up. 

Check out the recipe from Nags blog too. I doubled the quantity so I get a few idlis for lunch the next day too. But, I forgot to double the Eno though - maybe that's why the idlis were a little flat - but they were totally and perfectly cooked and I loved that about them - so flat is not bad at all for idlis!

Here's the proportion I cooked with -

2 cups rava (Sooji/ Semolina)
4.5 cups yogurt
1/2 cup water
Salt - to taste
ENO - 2 tsps.

To mix in the batter -
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Channa Daal - 1tsp
Fresh curry leaves - a few
Cashewnuts - a few

Fry all the above in 1 tsp of oil. First, heat the oil, let the mustard seeds splutter and then add the rest of the ingredients.

When the channa daal and cashews start turning golden, add the rava and roast in low - medium flame for a few mins until a nice flavor starts floating up and the rava starts to get golden.

Remove from heat and move to a mixing bowl. Add salt to taste.

Next, add half of the yogurt and whisk in well with the rava. Let that sit for about 10 - 15 mins. Get your chutney and sambar ready meanwhile!

Then, mix the rest of the yogurt with the batter and let sit for a few mins.

Add some fresh chopped cilantro in there for a little color and a lot of flavor.

And here comes the trick - ENO. I mistakenly added only 1 tsp. If you are cooking as much quantity as I am here, go ahead and add at least another 1/2 to 1 tsp extra.

As soon as you add the ENO, you'll see the brisk bubbling on the batter - this basically aerates the batter and helps the idli rise up and steam well. If you don't have ENO, baking soda will be a good substitution but not as much - maybe half the quantity unless you want to belch all through your meal. Don't blame me then.

Pour in greased idli moulds and steam for about 12-15 mins.

While that was steaming, I got ready with my mint chutney. Somehow mint chutney goes best with Idlis. If you    don't believe me, listen to what Arjun says in the movie Mudhalvan. Poo pola idli yum pudina chutney yum amma kaiyala saapta - adhukku sugame thani. Meaning, when mom feeds you soft idlis and pudina chutney, there is no other pleasure like that in this world. And I agree with him on that.

This is a quick and easy Pudina chutney recipe. And I make this quite often so I use up my fresh mint in the backyard.

In a pan, add about 1 tsp oil. Add 1 tbsp channa daal to the oil.

Then, add 1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger to the channa daal.

Add about 2 small green chillies chopped to the oil.

Then, add a bunch of fresh mint leaves washed well and drained to the oil.

The mint will wilt in a matter of few seconds.

Once the mint wilts, add fresh or frozen shredded coconut - about 1/2 cup to the pan. Saute for a min and switch off and remove from heat.

Ground everything together with a little salt in the mixie.

And lo and behold, pudina chutney is ready. Add a tadka of mustard seeds and some curry leaves on top.

And my Idlis are out of the idli cooker too. And do they look good or what. Agreed, they are little thin - but these were perfectly done and I loved my meal. I also made some onion-tomato sambar to go with the idlis.

Serve hot. And enjoy. And remember, if you don't feel like cooking somedays, just go online and look at pretty food. You'll find yourself cooking up a storm in no time. Thanks Nags for this revelation in my life!

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Click here for a Printable recipe.

Carrot Dosa

If its one of those weekdays and you have no idea what to make for dinner, you want to just scrape the left overs in your fridge but you already did that yesterday! (No - did not happen in our house yesterday! LOL!), this is probably a quick recipe to follow.

I like to make simple but different types of dosas like this one here - these are easy to make - and a serving of vegetable goes along with it in disguise. Moms - you can understand that!

So, here is our dosa of the day - Carrot Dosa.

Little bit of pre work needed here is that you have to soak rice for at least a couple of hrs before preparing the batter. Take about 2 cups of regular rice - I used our everyday basmati rice. Soak in hot water for 2-3 hrs. You can add toor daal to this if you want - then that would make carrot adai, which is another great option!

Grate a couple of carrots. Chop up 1-2 green chillies. And you need the rest of the ingredients here - some red chillies, jeera, coriander seeds, a little bit of black peppers, some chopped ginger.

 

Move the soaked rice to a blender and blend to a coarse consistency. 

 

Now add all the other ingredients to the coarse rice batter. Blend together well.

 

Blend well into a smooth batter.

 

Look at that color! Almost looks like carrot kheer - but definitely does not taste like kheer!

 

Now, just make dosas out of this batter immediately. You can make them like regular dosas.

 

Serve hot immediately with plain ol' coconut chutney and sambar. Or with just molaga podi. Or with Sugar..or with whatever you like.

 

How easy and nice is that? A bit of advice though - eat this hot. Do not let this cool and then eat - they kind of become tough when its cold, because its just rice batter.

 

Enjoy. Peace Out!

Upma Special -Veggie Rava Upma and Semiya Upma

Oh...what can I say about Upma? Its just Upma. Some like it. Some don't. I love it though. Especially when its full of veggies. 

My plan for dinner for the family was to make Rava Upma. Very excitedly, I cut all the veggies and was ready to make the upma and reallized I just had about 1 cup rava at home! That surely is not enough to feed 5 people! So, I peeked back into my pantry to look for Semiya and had a new pack full of it. And this day turned out to be a Upma Special day!  I used the same veggies and made it half Rava and half Semiya Upma. 

So, here's my adventure...(Oh... I need a life!)

This version of Upma does not have any onions. I love onions in Upma and always add it - but it was Saturday and my inlaws don't eat onions on saturday and hence I skipped it. 

To start with, chop all your veggies - I used ginger, green chilli, carrots, green beans, Peas, potato and tomatoes. You can also use other veggies as you prefer. Chop all veggies into small pieces. 

 

Before you start making the upma, heat up about 4-5 cups of water in a separate pan. 

In a wide pan, add about 2 tsp of oil. When oil is hot, add mustard seeds and wait till it splutters. Then, add 1 tsp of Urad daal and 1 tsp of Channa daal. Then, add a few leaves of karuvepilai (Kadi Patha). 

Now, add the chopped ginger and green chilli and fry well for a min. If you are adding onions, add them now - you can also add garlic. 

 

Add the tomatoes first and fry for a min. Then add all the veggies and fry for a couple of mins. Add salt and turmeric powder to the veggies just enough for the veggies.

Now, add the rava to the veggies and fry for a couple of mins.

 

 

When the rava and the veggies have roasted for a few mins, add the boiling water from the side directly on top of this. Watch out for the steam hitting your fingers! Add enough water to cover the rava in the pan and a little more. Add salt now to taste. Mix well and cover the upma to cook. Make sure that the stove is in medium. 

When most of the water has evaporated and cooked the upma, at this stage below, add a couple of tsp of ghee. This is what makes Rava Upma tasty...really tasty. And this will also ensure that the upma does not become hard when cooled down.

Keep cooking in low flame for a few mins. Some people like to keep it for a long time until the bottom of the upma starts to become crisp. That is the tastiest part. But, its totally upto you how you like it! Here it is almost done.

Now that we are done with Rava Upma, here's a quick tour of the Semiya Upma. It is the exact same method as above.

Fry the ginger, green chillies, tomatoes and veggies first. 

Then, add the semiya to the veggies and fry for a couple of mins.

 

Now, add the boiling water just enough to cover the semiya. Let it cook in medium flame. When almost done, add a couple of spoons of ghee. 

 

 

  

 Here it is almost done.

 

Serve Upmas hot with Coconut chutney.

 

 

Enjoy. Peace Out!